Machine for manufacture of television tubes



Aug. 21, 1951 G. HAHN MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURE OF TELEVISION TUBES 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 22, 1949 8 Y K M A 1 3 i1 LL 6 E r t A}... Qw LWMIIQ A} Q l1 o fi m d 0 N m I 3 N l mW an I 2 h l Etc. 3 Q 3 S Fm, W O m I g E M WW Q 7 v. A

Aug. 21, 1951 HAHN MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURE OF TELEVISION TUBES Filed June 22, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. E0z Haw/y BY v 426% 27% 4 T'TOEA/E 7 Patented Aug. 21, 1951 MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURE OF TELEVISION TUBES George Hahn, Sharon Hill, Pa.

Application June 22, 1949, Serial No. 100,575

1 Claim. 1

A television tube includes a head which carries the viewing screen and which is in the form of a truncated cone, and a relatively long and substantially cylindrical neck. For convenience of manufacture, the head and neck are made separatel with the small end of the head and with one end of the neck open. After the various components of the tube are installed in said head and neck, the open ends thereof are fused together to form a single unit.

The operation of integrating the head and neck of a television tube is carried out on a machine which resembles a lathe in that it has one stock for holding the large end of the head of the tube, another stock for holding the neck of the tube, one of said stocks being movable toward the other to bring the portions of the head and neck, which are to be fused together, into abutment, and means for rotating said head and neck while heat is applied to fuse the said abutting portions thereof.

The main object of the invention is to produce an improved machine of the type set forth.

As far as I know, machines of the type set forth now known or used are not wholly satisfactory due to the fact that, when the head of the tube is mounted in one stock of the machine and the neck of the tube in the other stock and the juxtaposed ends of the tubes are brought together, the abutting portions of the head and neck of the tube. were not always in suificiently accurate alignment or concentricity. This made it necessary to make corrections or adjustments so as to make sure that the head and neck of each tube are in proper alignment, The necessity of taking such precautions and making corrections and adjustments slowed production and increased costs.

It is therefore a further object of the invention to produce an improved machine of the type set forth whereby the necessary degree of alignment and concentricity between the head and neck of the tube is automatically assured therebyv speeding production and decreasing costs.

These and other objects are attained by my invention as set forth in the following specification and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a machine embodying the invention the parts being shown as the appear before the operation of integrating the headand neck of the tube is begun.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary, end elevational view looking in the direction of line II--II on Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is similar to Fig. 1 but showing the parts as they appear during the operation of integrating the head and neck of the tube.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged, fragmentary view, partly in section and partly in elevation showing details of construction of the chuck which is shown at the left hand end of Figs. 1 and 3 and which is adapted to hold the head of the tube.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged, fragmentary elevational view looking in the direction of line V-V on Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged, fragmentary and diagrammatic view partly in section, partly in elevation, and partly in phantom looking in the direction of line VIVI on Fig. 1.

Fig. '7 is an enlarged and fragmentary sectional view looking in the direction of line VIIVII on Fig. l.

Fig. 8 is a developed sectional view of the cam arrangement forming part of the clutch which holds the head of the tube.

A television tube includes a generally frustoconical head [0 and an elongated neck I2. For convenience, the head In and neck I2 are manufactured as separate parts and the head I [I is provided with an extension M to which the neck [2 is adapted to be welded as shown in Fig. 3.

As will be seen from Figs. 1, 2 and 3, my improved machine for the purpose stated includes a rail [6 mounted on a suitable support not shown and, in turn, supporting a fixed stock S adapted to support the head I 0 of the tube, and a movable stock SI adapted to support the neck 12 of the tube. The fixed stock S includes a bracket l8 fixed to the rail I6 and having a stub shaft 20 journalled therein. The shaft 20 is operatively connected by a belt, chain, or the like, to a shaft 22 which is driven by a pulley 24. The pulley 24 is driven by a belt or the like 25 actuated by a motor, or the like, not shown. A conventional fixed and loose pulley clutch is provided for connecting or disconnecting the stub shaft 20 from the shaft 22, the clutch being operated by a shifting lever in the usual manner. Since this type of clutch is old and well known it is not illustrated in detail and it is only pointed out that when lever 30 is moved to the position of Fig. 1 the stub shaft 20 will not rotate and when the lever 30 is moved to an opposite position the shaft 20 will be rotated by shaft 22.

The stock S further includes a body member 34 which is rotatable by shaft 20 in any well known manner. The body 34 is provided with a slot 36 for receiving an annular cam member 31 having a plurality of cam surface s 38, 40 and 42. The cam member is rotatable relative to the body 3 34 by means of a wrench or handle 4| adapted to engage a hole or recess 42a formed in said member.

The body 34 carries a plurality of equally spaced gripping fingers 44, which are adapted to hold the head Ii! of the tube. These fingers are alike and the structure of only one of them will now be described.

As shown in Fig. t, each finger includes a vertical portion 45 and a horizontal portion 48 and is pivoted to body member 3% as at 59. Each of the fingers i4 i provided with a cushioned gripping head 52 which is made of rubber or the like and which is pivoted to the end of the horizontal portion 48 of the finger as at 54. The lower end of the vertical portion 46 of each finger 44 is biased by a spring 56 toward the body member 34 or to the right as viewed in Fig. 4. In other words, the efiect of the spring 56 is to urge the finger 44 to rotate in counter clockwise direction, as viewed in Fig. 4, so as to open, or increase the space between the cushioned gripping members 52. The vertical portions 45 of each finger id is also provided with an adjustable ieeler pin 58 which is adapted to ride over the cam surfaces 38, id or $2 as est shown in Fig. 4. By this arrangement, when a pin -8 rides over a low por tion of a cam surface, the corresponding ringer =36 carrying such pin will be rotated, in counter clockwise, by its spring 56. When the cam member 37 is rotated so that the pins 58 of the fingers i ride on the high portions of the cam surfaces, the fingers 44 will be rotated in clockwise or clamping direction.

The tail stock Si, which carries the neck I? of the tube, includes a conventional, spring actuated chuck 623 which need not be shown in detail. It is sufficient to say that when the chuck is moved to the right as shown in Fig. 1, it assumes an open position permitting insertion of the neck It thereinto, and that the chuck 68 is biased to the left by a spring iii to grip the end of the neck inserted therein.

The tail stock is movable over rail it, toward and away from head stock S by mean or" a gear (not shown) on shaft '12. ihe gear engages rack F6 in the manner common to all lathes' and the chuck GB is rotated by means of a chain or belt 82 which is driven by shaft 22.

In order to insure proper alignment of the extension IQ of the head 19 with the neck i2 of the tube, I provide an auxiliary support for centering and supporting the extension it while the large end of :h sad iii of the tube is being engaged by fingers M. Thi auxiliary support includes a carriage which is movably mounted on rail 16 and an arm d5 having a rounded seat at the upper end thereof for receiving and seating the extension i of the head It of the tube as shown in Fig. 1. In order to be movable to an out of the way position when not in use, the arm 55 is hingedly secured to the carriage S4 as at T5. See Figs. 1 and 7.

By this construction, the arm 56 may be moved to the vertical position shown in Fig. l or to the horizontal position shown in broken lines in Fig.7.

The carriage is movable relative to the rail it by mean 01" a gear (not shown) carried by shaft 21a which is rotated by a hand wheel "it. This gear engages rack it whereby the carriage E and arm 55 may be moved towards or away from the head stock S.

The operation is as follows:

The member Bl is rotated in one direction relative to the body member 3% until the pins 58 ride on the low portions of cams 38, 40 and 42. This allows fingers 4 to pivot in counterclockwise direction, as viewed in Fig. l, and permits insertion of the large end of the head N3 of the tube between the gripping heads 52. Upon rotation of the cams in the opposite direction, the pins 58 will ride on the high portions of the. cams, and the fingers 6 3 will move in clockwise direction to close the gripping heads 52 about the head [0 of the tube.

With the fingers 4-3 in their non-engaging position, the arm is moved to a position in which it will underlie the extension I4 of the head H] of the tube. The head it is now manipulated to insure that the extension l lthereof is freely seated or cradled in the rounded seat 88 of the arm 66 and the cam member 37 is now rotated to cause the fingers 44 to close over the periphery of the head It of the tube whereby the pivotally mounted, self aligning gripping fingers 52 will firmly engage the head If). When the head It is thus firmly engaged, the carriage 6'3 and the arm are moved away from the head stock S until the rounded seat t8 is free of the stub It of the head of the tube. The arm 56 is now moved from its vertical to its horizontal position and the Si is moved toward the head stock S to bring the end of neck 92 into contact with the end of extension i i. "Vith both the head iii and neck 12 of the tube rotating, a source of heat, such as a gas torch is brought to hear at the junction of the neck i2 and extension it to fuse the same into a single unit.

By the arrangement described, the extension id and the neck H? are always automatically aligned without any special skill or attention on the part of the operator.

The feeler pins 53 are threadedly engaged with the arms id to or limit the movement of these arms in counterclockwise direction and the arm 8:? is provided with a set screw 89 for adjusting the arm $5 and insuring seating of the extension i in the se t In order to limit the movement of the cam member 3? relative to body member one or mo 1 step 32 are provided for abutting the fingers 4 or s me other fixed element located in the path or" movement of said stops.

What I claim is:

A machine of the type described including a head stock adapted to engage and support one object, a tail stock adapted to engage and support another object, an elongated horizontal track on which said stocks are mounted, means for moving one of said stocks towards or away from the other, a carriage movably mounted on said track and disposed intermediate said stocks, means for moving said carriage relative to said stocks, an arm, a seat carried by one end of said arm, and means hingedly connecting the other end of said arm to said carriage i or rotation about an axi parallel to the aXis of said track whereby said arm is movable to a horizontal position below said stocks and to a vertical position in which said seat is adapted to support said one object.

GEORGE HAHN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS;

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